On the stars, moon and planets
by Mariana-chan
Summary: Aoshi is the captain of a well known space station that arrests space criminals, when a ship packed with smugglers crashs against his ship. Wanna guess who those smugglers are?


Hi there! This is a new fic I've started and I want to know what you think abou it. Obviously it's a bout Aoshi and Misao, but this time I'll do a little K&K and S&M on the background. Hope ya like it.

On the Stars, Moon and Planets

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         The only thing that made captain Shinomori Aoshi regret having choose the job he did, was the fact that, in space, it was always night. Even with the most recent and equipped technologies, the huge space station, known as the 'Mingled', still couldn't imitate the rising and the setting of the sun on Earth. It was even worst for a son of the country of the rising sun. But one got used to that kind of ambiance.

         The Mingled was the third biggest space station used by the police force, on the entire known universe, which said a lot. It had got its name thanks to the fact that its camouflage technology was one of the most advanced, which facilitated the capture of out-laws, and ended up 'mingled' with the rest of the universe. It had been a great honor for Aoshi, with only twenty-seven years of age and thirteen in service, had been appointed captain of such powerful spaceship. Of course it had been a deserved reward, in return to Aoshi's faithful service and the high number of criminals he had caught and had brought to justice. The huge spaceship had developed to his liking, with a peaceful society living there.

Under Aoshi's responsibility lived 200 people (who were constantly changing), plus the ship's officials, which ended up being, more or less, 70. The Mingled was basely a training ship and an arresting ship, so not many civilians lived permanently there. Before Aoshi, the captain had been Seijuro Hiko, the personification of ego and conceit, who (for Aoshi's misery) decided to keep on living aboard the ship, after retiring. It was a right he had, but the man's constant bickering and that huge ego over Aoshi's shoulder always managed to get him irritated and a bit uncomfortable.

The entire crew knew that Captain Shinomori Aoshi always left his cabin at a quarter to seven a.m., sometimes earlier. Some officers guided themselves by the captain's impeccable timing, something that he demanded of everyone who worked with him. That day the captain was late, for everyone's amazement. The clock struck seven, when Aoshi left his cabin and, instead of directing himself to the bridge, he walked to the civilian part of the ship. There wasn't much of a difference between the officers and the civilians, and they weren't separated by much, but the officers working on the bridge slept near it.

The captain was known to have those small walks in the rest of the ship, to certify himself that everything was all right with his ship. Everyone was used to being questioned about their jobs and their families, something the former captain had never bothered to do. That day, however, the captain moved threw the mess, with two curt nods, and walked to the sports area. This wasn't unusual either, because Aoshi's younger sister, Shinomori Kaoru, taught self-defense in one of those sports gym. She lived very near the sports area and Aoshi intended to visit her that morning.

Her door was different from the others, because it had large signs telling passer-byes that she taught self-defense and where one should get information about it. Aoshi stopped in front of it and lay his right hand over the laser beam, in the right side of the door. The laser identified his fingerprints and the door opened with a 'Welcome, Captain Shinomori!'. Inside it was a typical Japanese house, of the XXIII century, of course. It crossed traditional sense with the new age technology. The walls were covered by large computer screens, which Kaoru programmed to watch the news early in the morning. Kaoru herself was nowhere to be seen. The apartments on board weren't very large, with usually one bedroom (two or three, if it happened to house a family), a living room, a small kitchen and one bathroom.

On the screens news from a large robbery in the constellation of Hydra flashed. The Mingled was flying exactly on another side of the universe, Aoshi thought in dismay.

"I'm glad we're not there, Aoshi." Kaoru's voice said, from behind him. Aoshi turned around and watched his younger sister close her jacket. "Good morning, Aoshi. How are you?"

"I'm alright. And you? I haven't seen you in a few days." He said, sitting himself on one of her high bench.

"Well, you were supposed to have dinner with me the other day, but you couldn't come. What happened anyway?" She asked, setting her house computer to have her dinner ready later on.

"Don't remind me. I'm late today because I staid up until six o'clock, writing reports about it, to send to the mother-ship." Kaoru looked at him, in concern. " A ship almost crashed into us." He explained.

"What?" Kaoru asked. It had never happened that a ship would get that close to the Mingled without being picked up and warned. Besides she hadn't heard a thing about it, during the last days and on board news traveled as fast as in a small village.

"We were completely caught by surprise."

*****************Flashback*************************************************

Three days earlier…

"Officer Shiro, do a check up on the near area, just to make sure. After that you may all go to your shift schedules." Aoshi ordered. It was a mere procedure, to check the area, if the computer picked up something it would warn them on time. But the protocol told every captain to do so, before allowing his crew to its normal schedules.

"Yes, Sir." Shiro scanned the area and was almost finishing, when the screen started flashing. "I don't believe it!"

"Report, Officer. What's happening?" Aoshi asked, looking at all the screens flashing in alarm.

"Captain, we have an unregistered ship, type 2, in our trajectory, closing in fast." He nearly screamed. The entire crew started working on stopping the other ship.

"Officer Seta, try to communicate with the ship, ASAP." Aoshi ordered, while he scanned his records for any warning the computer might've given before. A ship as such a close range should've been caught before. But no, the main computer hadn't seen it. It took a very powerful camouflage technology to pass the Mingled scan. "How about that communication, Officer?"

"I can't, Sir. No one answers."

"My computer is catching six human life forms on board." Officer Shiro said. Aoshi turned to his second in command, Officer Himura.

"Himura, I want you to enter that ship's computer, stop its engines and divert its trajectory." The officer in question nodded and started working right away. At the rate the other ship was coming they would crash in four or five minutes, tops. It would be just a strong shake to the large space station, but the other ship, being type 2, would most likely disintegrate and if there were people on board, Aoshi was obligated to try everything in his reach to save them.

Aoshi saw the other ship's computer on the Mingled large screen and saw Himura hack into the programmed trajectory. The engines were already turned off and, when everybody thought they would surely crash, Himura managed to incline the ship to the left. Everyone on the bridge breathed in deeply.

"Good job, everyone." Aoshi said, now trying to find the ship's register. Every ship had one, even if it was a stolen ship or an out-law ship. While the computer searched for it, he gathered a team to go into the other ship and looks for survivors.

********************End Flashback ******************************************

"Were they alive?" Kaoru asked.

"Yes, they were all alive." Aoshi answered, walking with his sister towards the door.

"What are they, anyway? If they don't have a registered ship, they must be criminals or smugglers." She said, locking her door, with the same laser mechanism.

"They are smugglers, but this is confidential. Don't tell anyone. No one's supposed to know they are here in the first place. We still don't know what to do with them." Aoshi explained. "According to the Universal Protocol we must give them medical support and I don't object – they're still in frozen sleep, you know? But they are all smugglers, one of them is a known shooter, and I don't know if I should arrest them, when they wake up." He paused for a while. "And it's unusual for a smuggler's ship to have all its crew in frozen sleep, in a place of the galaxy that is being guarded. I want to know what were they doing."

"When are they going to wake up?" Kaoru asked, opening her gym.

"Well, three of them are ready to be waken up at any time, but the other three show some wounds. Nothing big or specially dangerous, mind you." Aoshi stopped by her door. "We're thinking about waking them this afternoon and I came here because Megumi might need some help there. Can you droop by, later on?"

"Sure, you can count on me." Aoshi nodded and moved away. "See you later, then, Kaoru."

"Yeah, later."

Aoshi did the walk he had already done, to get to the bridge. In there, sitting on large chairs and looking at the screen, were Shiro, Seta and Himura. Everything seemed back to normal, according to the look of utter boredom in Shiro's countenance. Himura was sipping from his large mug of coffee and Seta was working on the crashed ship's computer. According to the Mingled database the smaller ship was called 'Fired up Mobile' and was owned by Okina, a known art and gems smuggler. The Mobile, that was the way it was called for short, until that moment had been able to defend all Seta's attacks to the mainframe and he hadn't been able to hack into the last hours records.

Every ship maintained the recording of crucial moments, for example when the combustible was running low or half of the engines stopped working, the ship's computer would automatically start recording, in case the ship crashed and the Universal Services needed the recording to report the crash. But the Mobile wasn't allowing anyone inside the recordings.

"Maybe they cleaned that order from the computer." Seta suggested.

"Can they do that?" Shiro asked, coming out of his boredom. Aoshi smirked at the boy's naiveté.

"Yeah," Seta answered, "if you're really good you can over-write it. Hey, Captain, do they have any known hacker on board?"

"No. They have Okina, that old smuggler (most of them are just smugglers); Sanousuke, who is wanted in four galaxies because of his gambling debts; Okon and Omasu, who are wanted for fraud, small robbery and, of course, smuggling; then we have a guy named Kuro, who apparently doesn't have a record; and, last and definitely not least, Makimachi Misao."

"What? Makimachi was in there?! And she's here now?" Seta asked, interrupting his work.

"Hey, do you guys want to share who that chick is, so I can piss my pants too." Shiro said.

"Makimachi Misao is wanted in eight galaxies, thanks to her qualities as a shooter." Aoshi explained. "She's taken down ship that were two light-years away [A.n.: I have no idea if this is a very big distance or not. In here it's supposed to be e-n-waz. =)], with a single shoot. The police have been after her for quite some time."

"And now she's fallen into our lap." Seta stated, still a bit dazed.

"Something really serious must've happened." Himura said, speaking for the first time that day.

"What do you mean?" Shiro asked.

"What he means, Shiro, is that a ship with smugglers of this sort doesn't go into a highly guarded area like this one, with its inhabitants in frozen sleep." Aoshi explained. "And then we have to consider the wounds three of them have. Omasu had a broken head and a burning all the way up on her right leg; that Kuro guy had two broken arms and 2nd degree burnings in his chest; Makimachi was in a coma, Shiro, and her brain still hasn't shown any signs of recovering."

"Shit."

Aoshi frowned, he usually didn't like that his officers said curse words while in front of him, but right at that moment that was exactly what he was thinking. What the hell was he supposed to do? He had to give medical support to them, but them he had no idea what to do with a comatose criminal and he still had to discover why they were in the middle of no-where, everybody asleep. He had sent his report that same morning, so the mother ship hadn't answered yet, but he had to wake those three guys that were okay. People that stayed too long in frozen sleep ended up with serious brain damages. He would have to question them and then, most probably, lock them up.

  


Megumi walked into the infirmary and sighed. She had already set three of the domes' computers to open them that same afternoon, so they could wake the people inside them up, but she couldn't help but feel sorry for the other three. Two of them had already been healed, the burns and the cracked bones, but the girl, which couldn't be older than eighteen, was still in a very deep coma. She walked up to her dome and stared inside. It would be a real shame if someone so young would die, with all the new technologies.

Apart from her and Aoshi, who had told her, no one knew the story behind that girl's criminal record. The night before that one, Aoshi had entered the infirmary, to check up on the smugglers and on Megumi, and had told her what he knew of the Makimachi family. Megumi couldn't help but pity that girl.

**************Flashback****************************************************

Megumi was setting the hours for the next medicine dose, when the large steel door opened. Only one person, apart from Megumi herself, had access to the infirmary so late in the evening: Captain Aoshi. As expected, the captain entered and walked up to her. She couldn't help but stare at him and wonder. She had nourished the fantasy of them having an affair, while the both of them worked on board, but her hope was diminishing every day. He was a sort of captain that was all work and a 100% dedicated to his job, because he was ambitious. She understood, after all she was ambitious too. But that tall, strong, lean body inside that tight uniform just made her daze and go into another world.

That night he had a troubled look in his face and she had to ask him about it.

"What seems to be the problem, Captain?" She asked in what she hoped was her most business-like voice.

"What, apart from a bunch of sleeping criminals that I haven't got a clue what to do with?" He sighed and after a while answered her question. "I remembered something."

"May I know what?"

"Yeah. It's about her." He pointed at the dome where Makimachi Misao was lying down. Megumi must've looked confused, because he went on. "When I was in my early years in the Academy I had a college named Makimachi Hatso. He… he died very early in life, when he was sixteen, in a normal procedure that went wrong. I remember him saying that he had to graduate real quick, because he had no father, his mother was sick and needed money and his kid sister was still growing up. Basically, he had to start working soon, so he could support his family. He died, as I said, and I never thought twice about his mother… or his sister. I guess I never remembered him again, because we were never really that close."

"So, you're saying that she started working as a smuggler and a shooter, to support her sick mother and herself." Megumi stated. Aoshi nodded. He felt really bad about that entire story and he blamed himself, in part, for never remembering his college again, or his family. With the new knowledge about the universe and the new planets and everything that came with it, most of the people running business forgot about the ones that had no opportunity in life, that were left behind with no money and no means to earn it. So, was it really a wonder most of them chose the easy way out and turned criminals? Sure, that didn't explain their illegal activities, but one had to think twice before judging. In all that huge universe, smuggling was one of the smaller illegal acts, Makimachi's problem was that sometimes enemy ships got to close to their own good and she used her abilities to bring food to her mother's table.

"What are we going to do with her, Captain?" Megumi asked, not missing the pained look in Aoshi's eyes when he looked at the comatose shooter.

"First I have to find out what happened that night, then I'll what I'll do with them all." He said his goodnight and walked off.

*********************End of Flashback***************************************

  


Kenshin looked at his watch and quickened his pace. He didn't like to be late, because of his captain and also because of his own moral stands – if you plan something with someone, you have to keep it or warn her otherwise. He had known, by his captain (who was also his best friend), that Kaoru would also be helping at the infirmary later on and had called her, to pick her up and walk her to the infirmary. He had to walk quicker than this, if he wanted to be on time.

He got to the door and placed his hand in the laser. Inside he heard his name out-loud, warn Kaoru that he was waiting for her. Inside he heard her dash to the door and then it opened. She would always manage to amaze him with her natural beauty, devoid of any kind of artificial make-up or anything of the sort. Of course no one would wear make-up and a pretty dress, to help out at the infirmary, but she managed to look great wearing the usual space uniform that Kenshin never would have thought sexy before.

She smiled at him, grabbed her backpack, and then closed her door.

"I'm ready, Himura-san. You really didn't need to come pick me up, you know?" She said, starting to walk.

"I know, but I feel better this way. And will I always need to ask you not to call me Himura-san, when I'm off-duty?"

"I'm sorry, but it's hard for me to call the same person, two different names, in different occasions. I'm sorry, Kenshin." He smiled at her, for he understood what she meant. He had already been second in command while Captain Hiko had been running things and had never had a strong relationship with the man outside the bridge [A.n.: Baka deshi! Baka deshi! Lol]. It had been strange for him too, when Aoshi had arrived, with his younger sister, and had started making attempts to befriend him. At first Kenshin had thought it rather strange.

They walked in a somewhat comfortable silence to the infirmary, where Aoshi was waiting for them. Kenshin looked at his watch, in alarm, to see if he had been late. No, he was on time, three minutes sooner even. As always Aoshi had gone there earlier than expected, he didn't like to arrive after his officers, because he said he would loose people's time trying to catch up. He was a rather practical man, Captain Shinomori.

"Hi, Aoshi." Kaoru greeted. It had always been one thing that bugged Kenshin, that they should treat each other by their names and have no pet name for themselves. But he could see how protective Aoshi was of Kaoru and vice-versa. Kenshin had once invited Kaoru to have lunch with him in a civilian restaurant and during it a man, who clearly didn't approve of Aoshi's severity and new ways, had talked a bit too loud for his own sake. Kenshin had been forced to drag Kaoru out of the restaurant or the man would have ended up in the hospital. To balance it, once an officer made a less proper comment about the 'hot babe' that was the captain's sister, and by chance that same captain had heard it. The officer had been forced to do community service in the civilian part of the ship for eight whole months.

"Officer." Aoshi greeted Kenshin with a curt nod.

"Captain. When will they be awakening?" Kenshin asked, spotting Seta coming down the hall. Aoshi looked at his own watch.

"In about twenty minutes, but then they have to go through all those tests, that take about an hour. I don't if we'll be able to question them today and I don't think they are up to being locked up, Officer." Kenshin nodded in understanding.

"And what am I doing here?" Kaoru asked.

"Megumi will open the door in ten or twelve minutes and you'll help her talk to them, to see if they don't have a shock or something." Aoshi nodded in greeting at Seta, who had stopped by them. "I just want to know how they are, then I'll go to my cabin. I have tons of reports to read."

They waited for about eight minutes, and then Megumi opened the infirmary door and walked out.

"You may come in now. They will be wakening up any time now. Please be silent and avoid talking harshly or very loud to them. If possible avoid talking to them at all." She advised. Then she spotted Kaoru. "Kaoru-chan, I'm pleased to see you here. I haven't seen you in a while. How are you?"

"I don't think this is the proper time to have this conversation, Doctor. I'm sorry." Aoshi cut the conversation short and moved inside the room, where three of the domes had already opened. Megumi rolled her eyes at him, but followed.

Inside the dome far to the left was a very tall, young man, with spiky brown hair and a rough look. He had bandages around his hands and chest, but those were old ones that apparently were there because of their owner's sense of style. Next to him, inside an also opened dome, laid a young girl, the one named Okon, that had long, straight hair, who couldn't be older than twenty-five or something around that. On the last of the opened domes, was an old man, with a beard and the air of a perfectly normal old guy. According to reports, Okina the smuggler was one of the biggest pervert in the known universe. Aoshi briefly wondered how three young, pretty women managed to work with him 24/7, inside such a small ship.

By the minute, they watched as the three beating hearts started to sound normal and they started looking less rigid. Sanousuke started twitching and rolled over, thinking he was in his bed, but ended up on the floor. He jumped quickly, when Megumi ran up to him, to help him.

"Who are you, woman?" He asked, looking around and catching the three officers, three armed officers. Megumi tried to talk to him, but he started looking around and caught sight of his three friends still in frozen sleep. "What's wrong with them?" Meanwhile Okina started to wake up with the noise.

"Shut up, Sano. I need my beauty sleep." He said, with a still sleepy voice.

"Shut up, old man. You're way pass you beauty sleep, trust me. Look around you old fart." Sanousuke ordered. Okina sat up still inside his dome and stared bug eyed at all that unknown people. "See in what you placed us? Where you placed us? With WHOM?" Sano screamed. After a while he had started hyperventilating.

"Okay, breathe deeply and slowly." Megumi said, with a calm voice, but Sano was looking around. Out of nowhere, Okon screamed. She had woken up in the middle of the fuss and had just panicked. Kaoru ran to her side and, with a soothing voice, talked to her.

"What's wrong with my little Misao?" Okina suddenly asked. All of them turned to the last dome and watched as Misao was having convulsions.

"Hurry, someone one please help me open that dome." Megumi demanded. Aoshi ran to her side, as well as Sano, who was breathing a bit more calmly.

"What's wrong with her?" Okon asked, in hysterics. With everybody's eyes on her, Megumi looked up and explained.

"She's reacting to the frozen sleep. We have to place her on a breathing machine, quick." Aoshi and Sano tried to open it, but the computer wasn't programmed for it and it wouldn't accept a sudden order to open the dome just like that. A person had to be prepared, before coming out of the frozen sleep. The only problem was when someone reacted like Misao and was in serious risk of dying inside.

Suddenly, both Aoshi and Sano had the same idea and slammed their elbows in the glass, that shattered a bit, allowing them to open the dome from inside, which was easier. Megumi had the breathing machine ready and placed it on Misao, after Aoshi had moved her to the nearest bed. After that her breathing became normalized.

  


Review, review! Don't forget about that part.

Thanks a lot for reading this.

MaRiAnA-chan


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